“It’s a lie. It’s all a lie,” Cheryl Shepherd told the New York Daily News. “That’s my grandbaby and it was wrong for them to put that out there. That is Jovan’s baby and it is my grandbaby.

“You are hearing it from the horse’s mouth. Zoey is Jovan’s baby and my grand baby. I have never had any doubt.”

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Speculation has run rampant over what could possibly lead 25-year-old Kansas City Chiefs lineback, Jovan Belcher, to shoot his girlfriend, 22-year-old Kasandra Perkins, 9 times, murdering her in cold blood in front of his mother and his 3-month-old daughter, then killing himself.

Belcher’s mother, Cheryl Shepherd, who has temporary custody of Zoey, told investigators that the troubled couple argued over paternity of the child right before her son pulled the trigger, according to a source close to the Chiefs organization.

Cheryl Shepherd — who was in her son’s suburban Missouri home the morning he shot Perkins nine times — told investigators after the shootings that there were questions about whether the West Babylon, LI-raised linebacker was the father of the couple’s 3-month-old daughter, Zoey, said sources familiar with the situation.

“The mother believed that there was an issue over whether [Belcher] was the father,” said a source close to the Chiefs with knowledge of the situation.

“She said he [believed he] wasn’t necessarily the father of the child.”

A Kansas City law-enforcement source confirmed, “She told [police] there was a question about the paternity.”

It’s unclear if the paternity issue was the reason for the final, violent end of the troubled relationship between Belcher, 25, and Perkins, 22.

“But the implication was that [paternity] was what the two of them were fighting about — that the baby might not have been his,” a source said.

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As previously reported by NewsOne, the Kansas City Chiefs had been providing counseling for Belcher and Perkins prior to the murder-suicide. Though such an argument may be considered motive, Kansas City police say they will not investigate the claim.

“That would not be something they’re going to investigate,” said Sgt. Marisa Barnes. “It’s a ‘he-said, she-said’ so there’s no way to investigate. It would be nothing more than a civil matter.“

Baby Zoey will receive at least $1,000,000 over the course of the next 23 years from the NFL.

After killing Perkins, Belcher kissed her on the forehead, kissed Zoey and exited the house. Before kneeling behind a car at Arrowhead Stadium and shooting himself in the head, he asked general manager Scott Pioli and team owner Clark Hunt to please take care of their daughter.

When Shepherd was contacted by the Post a woman answeing her phone said that she would have no comment on the matter.